Hello darlin,

Good day today. Most of them are. Even when they're teary or tired, they mostly end up being good.

Dinner's on - I roasted a lamb shoulder last night (3 day's rations for this little one...), and there's mashed potatoes with toasted pecans, and buttered peas. Oh yes, and a wonderful 98 Cotes Du Rhone I just picked up the last case of - Les Cranilles. Yumm.

That's another little closet piece of me - wine.

I'm untutored (surprise!), but I opened a small wine shop a couple of years ago when I realized I was going to sell the Red Barn and I might need something else to bring in some dollars, seeing as how I'm an absolute wutz (don't know if it's a word, but it ought to be - I speak gyiddish, that's goy yiddish, the improvisational language of an almost jewish goil) at marketing myself.

And I think I'm ruined for working for other people - don't know yet; perhaps I could handle ad hoc projects, but jeez! I'm such an opinionated person and I still haven't found that circle of folk that has figured out how to welcome opinionated people into their lives, and use what they *think* they know.

Anyhow, the wine shop is a relatively simple operation - I don't have to be there daily, because it's just a set of shelves and a bunch of inventory in a girlfriend's gift shop, about 3 blocks from where I now live. I did it in order to sell something I love (speaking of the Gods of Alcohol - thank goodness I don't have an addictive nature - what a blessing! -- oops, BS detector going off...I am totally in love with coffee...and air. I like air. Food. ok, beal, chill...).

Logic told me that wine was a product I could get behind. I already had a wine shop in the Barn. I could always drink the inventory if I couldn't sell it. I *love* doing product research. I get to visit wineries. Not too hard to figure, really.

Speaking of which, let me know if you ever want to do a tour of Sonoma wineries - I never have, and it's on *the list* (so's Australia, and the Mediterranean, and there's even some wineries in Africa...) and I couldn't think of a more fun person to do it with than you. Of course, you'd have to fake it along with me, unless you happen to be a connoisseur. In which case, you'd just get to be totally embarrassed by me, at least until you'd hit enough tasting rooms....

My focus is on organic, regional, and sustainably produced wines. It's an up and coming market, and it takes more farming/societal knowledge than the Wine Spectator can come up with. Right now, the knowledge is still mostly in my head, but it's oozing out, slowly but surel...well, slowly....

Unfortunately, since it does look like the store is going to track into selling to the boys for awhile, AND since they don't have a lot of money, I'll need to do something sooner rather than later for personal cash flow, so I guess I have to start cracking on ye old wine shop.

Oh well. I guess that means I'll be drinking more wine next year. Life's so hard, isn't it?

*************

Nick came into the store today and warmed my heart. He had a little girl in tow, named "Asia". I was glad.

About 4 days ago, one of my friends from the neighborhood, a police officer named Todd, came in and told me about a woman who was just moving into the neighborhood. She has lymphoma pretty badly, he said, and she and her 80 year old mother and her young daughter were all living in a hotel in what we call "Felony Flats" down the street.

They'd just found an apartment nearby. Todd was helping her move. He came in to see if I could suggest anyone who might help her with cooking meals and caring for her daughter for the next little while, as he said that she hadn't yet really admitted that she was dying, though the cancer's spread to her lungs and it's terminal and she's deteriorating visibly, and very rapidly.

As he's talking to me, I'm thinking "Nick, Nick, Nick..."

The night that Nick was over and we wrote you that little letter together, I was watching him do the dishes and I told him again what a great Au Pair he'd make. He really has undergone a remarkable metamorphosis over the last four years, John. My god - almost 5, now. I brought him over in February of 1997! How time is flying...

One of his great emergent talents has been the care of children. His gentle voice, big fuzzy giant feel, and soft British accent are so soothing. Moms love him (literally). Kids wrap him around their finger, and they're totally safe with him. His own path of being the Bending Sage, the Willow Man blown by the winds of human frailty, makes him ideal for the Nowness of little ones.

So, who should walk in as I'm talking to Todd but Nick. I smiled. I love, love, love the Universe - it always knows the right scene to run next.

And, long story short, Nick is now caring for this family, for the interim. What better man to hold the travails of a young girl and an old mother running a hospice for their own, who refuses to see that she's dying?

It's all so perfectly, perfectly short sometimes, isn't it?

************

Well, dear. I'm at the end of this note. There's lots, and more, and I guess it just keeps coming, doesn't it?

Thanks for sending me a little tidbit now and then. I look forward to hearing more about what's up in your part of reality, for you're in my thoughts often enough and it's good to learn more about your world.

Peas are done. Potatoes ready to mash. Come on over for dinner sometime...

love,

cynthia

PLUR. Remember PLUR

Peace
Love
Unity
Respect

Peace
Love
Unity
Respect

Peace
Love
Uni

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2001